QUINN BAGS ROOKIE TITLE WITH COMEBACK
An outstanding comeback from the back of the grid ensured that Alex Quinn wrapped up the Rookie title in the F4 British Championship with a ninth place finish in the opening race of the penultimate round at Silverstone.
The Racing Steps Foundation-backed driver was forced to start from 19th position after a troubling wet weather qualifying session.
But in drier conditions later in the day, Quinn was determined to quickly make up places, and the Fortec Motorsports driver had already made up five places by the sixth tour to 14th place with a number of drivers spinning on the opening lap.
Battling for a top-10 finish, Quinn passed team-mate Frank Bird into Copse on lap 13 for 11th place having already taken Double R Racing’s Carrie Schreiner.
Quinn drove around the outside of fellow team-mate Nicolai Kjaergaard at Brooklands before having the inside line for Luffield to take 10th place and second in class.
But leading rookie, Arden’s Ayrton Simmons was still 2.8 seconds up the road in ninth place. Quinn cut that advantage to just one second within three laps, but with only a single lap remaining, Quinn’s time was running out.
On the final tour, Quinn became the leading Fortec driver, as Jamie Caroline tripped over the Arden machine of Luis Leeds who was slowly limping home with a mechanical issue.
Their tangle promoted Quinn to ninth place as he exited Luffield to take the chequered flag, securing second in class and wrapping up his first car racing title.
Quinn’s efforts also handed him pole position for Sunday morning’s second race of the weekend, in which he will be joined on the front row by Leeds.
"It's amazing to win the title," Quinn said later. "I've been leading the points for a while so I knew that I had a good chance to win this weekend, but it's never clear cut.
"The car was a lot better in the dry and I really enjoyed the race. It was probably my most enjoyable race of the year. I was able to make some good moves, particularly the one around the outside of Brooklands, that was a highlight. I'll hope to repeat that further into the weekend.
"I just pushed to get through the field and inside the points-scoring positions, and that has also put me on to pole position for race two so I now have to go and convert that to victory tomorrow."
SILVERSTONE: (2.638km / 1.639 miles): RACE ONE results (top 10)
Position
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Driver (Nat)
Zane Goddard (AUS)
Sennan Fielding (GBR)
Devlin DeFrancesco (CAN)
James Pull (GBR)
Petru Florescu (ROM)
Rafael Martins (BRA)
Ayrton Simmons (GBR) / R
Luis Leeds (AUS)
Alex Quinn (GBR) / R
Nicolaj Kjaergaard (DEN) / R
Team / Car
Double R
JHR
Carlin
Carlin
Carlin
TRS Arden
TRS Arden
TRS Arden
Fortec
Fortec
Time / Gap
20m 06.969s
+7.397s
+18.530s
+18.868s
+19.239s
+19.993s
+20.171s
+20.448s
+20.718s
+21.758s
Fastest lap: Max Fewtrell- 56.820s
Weather: Dry / Cloudy
R = Rookie
BACK TO NEWS
Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography.
Copyright-free Racing Steps Foundation images are available for editorial use from the RSF Image Bank at http://www.jakobebrey.com/rsf
Report: Racing Steps Foundation - Russell Hayes, Racing Steps Foundation PR & Communications Manager